Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders | Page 17

… the tents of Kızılay that we made… We, as 13 thin children
aged between 8 and 12, were saved from just spending the
summer times in the concrete garden…”-Hrant Dink, Davacıyım
Ey İnsanlık!
Hrant Dink
narrates the
story of Kamp
Armen. There
was in need
of a place
for Armenian
orphanages
and children
who forgot
Armenian
language
when they
returned to the
hometown in
the summer after 1950s. Children built the camp on their own and
regarded it as their Atlantis because the camp provided them with
enjoyment, solidarity and the roof. But after 1979, the possession
of the camp was taken from Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant
Church to a Turkish person as an implementation to dispossess
Armenian people living in Turkey. After this date, the graduated
children from the camp which had remained as an isolated place
afterwards gathered annually when they became adults. But after
25 years, in 2015, the building was decided to be destroyed since
a villa was planned to be built, which means the annihilation of
Armenian memory. It resulted in a remarkable protest that Nor
Zartonk, other organizations, Armenian graduated children from
the camp and people around İstanbul were involved in. It lasted
for nearly 5 months in order not to allow it to be demolished.
The protest resulted in the fact that the possession of the camp
returned to the church.: http://www.kamparmen.org/en/